posted
Dec 23, 2008 by Lamar Thames
Christmas always brings out the nostalgia in me and I am sure it does the same for you as well. If you have ever wanted to share your memories with others, here is your chance. I am going to post a few of the memories that are the most special to me and I am going to encourage you to do the same thing.
Here is how it will work. You can add a comment to the end of my column or you can send me an email at lthames.com of your special memories and I will post it for you. Don’t worry whether you think your writing is very good because I am sure it will be satisfactory. If it isn’t, I will make some subtle changes to bring it up to snuff. After all, I used to be an editor, you know.
All right, here goes my list. Keep in mind that these are just the memories that reverberate in my mind from time to time and they are not in any order, just randomly as I recall them.
√ A favorite all-time gift — The set of six-shooters that Santa brought me the year my sister was born when my family lived in Selma, Ala. I was 6 years old. The guns came with a snazzy leather holster that went perfectly with the cowboy hat, chaps and Western shirt that I already had. I fancied myself as the next Wild Bill Hickok (as portrayed by Wild Bill Elliot in the movie serials that were popular in the ’40s and ’50s.) I kept that gun and holster set until about 20 years ago. Wish I still had them.
The video is of granddaughter Emma telling Nana what to write on a card.
√ Most unexpected gift — My son Jeff and I share a special bond over the movie “The Christmas Story.” We both love it and watch it whenever it is on. But my wife, well, let’s just say she doesn’t share the same enthusiasm for it that we do. Jeff is actually my step-son and I cherish it when we can connect in a special way.
Jeff floored me last year when he handed me a replica of the Red Rider BB Gun that was an integral part of “The Christmas Story.” The gun was left in a closet in the house that Jeff and his family had just moved into before Christmas 2007. Needless to say, I was speechless. I think Jeff was proud of the present, too.
√ The true meaning of Christmas, Part 1 — When granddaughter Kaia, then 3, found out during a church presentation that the baby Jesus didn’t have a bed to sleep on when he was born. She told us later that we needed to go to the store and buy the baby a bed.
√ True meaning of Christmas, Part 1 — My wife and I were helping three of our grandchildren buy presents for their mother, a single mom, and writing messages on Christmas cards for her. Emma, 3 and a half, told her nana to write: “Thank you mom for giving us a home and for this Christmas.”
This generation must be doing something right.
(Share your memories with others. Add a comment or send an email to lthames@mac.com.)
Mike M.
12/23/2008
4:27 pm
#85
Some of my fondest memories from my boyhood (late 30’s – mostly early 40’s) . . .
I miss the way the house smelled when Mom baked, especially the Croatian pastries . . . and let’s not forget the part about licking the bowls clean before having to wash them. .
I miss the chiming of the church bells before Midnight Mass (bells locked down and 2 old men with ropes on wrists and ankles connected to the clappers) . . . for 15 minutes, it was m-u-s-i-c.
I miss the house (one room 1st floor, built into the side of a hill) jam packed with friends and relatives, even the steps leading to the back yard were full of happy people. You’d think none of them ever had a care in the world.
I miss the December snows, the powdery kind instead of the big “wet” flakes. When we got one of those, we kids headed for the “church hill” with our skis made from barrel staves and held on by straps cut from inner tubes. Toboggans? Easy! Cut the panels from a large cardboard box (the kind used by moving companies), then two or three of you sit down somewhere in the middle and lean forward until you could grab the edge of the cardboard and double it back over your legs. Lastly, remember to tell your friends (who were holding the “toboggan” while you were doing all this) to “Let Go!” Now, this may not measure up to Irving Berlin’s dreams of how to spend a “White Christmas” but if any of you have shared in this experience, you know what the others have missed.
I miss waking up and placing Baby Jesus in His crib beneath the tree on Christmas mornings.
And now that I am on in years, there is still one more thing I miss very much. I miss spending Christmas Eve with all my friends (and on the good years, my Mom, too) at Ron and Judi J.’s house. Most of the time, we don’t realize how much we’re going to miss something until we no longer have it. I’m glad I got to tell everyone how very much those annual Christmas Eve gatherings meant to me while we still had them. (By the way, Ron and Judi, if you are reading this, thanks, again, for some of my best memories.)
Lastly, I miss my grandson, Michael, who is spending this Christmas in Saudi, all too soon to be Afghanistan. When we pray for Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men this year, please lend him a thought.
A Merry and Blessed Christmas to All.